Tempe AZ (SPX) Oct 06, 2021
A micrometeorite, called TAM19B-7, may have originated from a Ceres-like asteroid, according to a recent study conducted by researchers Maitrayee Bose and Victoria Froh of Arizona State University, Martin Suttle of The Open University, U.K., and Luigi Folco, of the University of Pisa, Italy. They will be presenting the results of their study at the 53rd annual American Astronomical Society

Beijing (XNA) Oct 07, 2021
China's Mars rover and orbiter have suspended explorations since mid-September, to wait out a period of sun outage, the China National Space Administration said on Tuesday. A sun outage refers to a phenomenon when Mars and the Earth move to either side of the sun and the three are almost perfectly aligned. During this period, the solar electromagnetic radiation will increase and disrupt th

Wallops Island VA (SPX) Oct 07, 2021
University students from North and South America put their classroom knowledge and technical skills to the test when their experiments flew on a recent NASA scientific balloon flight over New Mexico. Launched Sept. 14 from Fort Sumner, New Mexico, the balloon carried the High-Altitude Student Platform or HASP, with its 11 student experiments and also 23 student experiments through the Rock

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 07, 2021
In August 2021, new testing equipment arrived at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in the form of a gravity offset table. NASA engineers will use the table to test robotic satellite servicing technologies that will one day operate in space. A gravity offset table is a large piece of granite used for testing space payloads in simulated zero-gravity conditions. Measu

Paris, France (SPX) Oct 07, 2021
Eutelsat Communications has exercised a call option on a portion of the latest OneWeb funding round subscribed by Bharti, for a consideration of $165 million, taking its shareholding from 17.6% to 22.9%. The transaction was undertaken on identical financial terms to Eutelsat's initial investment of $550 million announced in April and completed on 8 September. The completion of this latest

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 07, 2021
Exoplanet hunters have found thousands of planets, most orbiting close to their host stars, but relatively few alien worlds have been detected that float freely through the galaxy as so-called rogue planets, not bound to any star. Many astronomers believe that these planets are more common than we know, but that our planet-finding techniques haven't been up to the task of locating them. Mo

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 07, 2021
With Artemis, NASA will establish a long-term presence at the Moon, opening more of the lunar surface to exploration than ever before. This growth of lunar activity will require new, more robust communications, navigation, and networking capabilities. NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program has developed the LunaNet architecture to meet these needs. LunaNet will leverage

Tucson AZ (SPX) Oct 07, 2021
Scientists thought asteroid Bennu's surface would be like a sandy beach, abundant in fine sand and pebbles, which would have been perfect for collecting samples. Past telescope observations from Earth's orbit had suggested the presence of ??large swaths of fine-grain material called fine regolith that's smaller than a few centimeters. But when the spacecraft of NASA's University of Arizona

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 07, 2021
On Saturn's giant moon Titan, liquid methane and other hydrocarbons rain down, carving rivers, lakes and seas in a landscape of frozen water. The complex chemistry on this icy world could be analogous to the period when life first emerged on Earth, or it might yield an entirely new type of life. And even farther - light-years away in deep space, a black hole shreds the ultra-dense core of a dead

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Oct 07, 2021
NASA has completed the design certification review (DCR) for the Space Launch System Program (SLS) rocket ahead of the Artemis I mission to send the Orion spacecraft to the Moon. The review examined all the SLS systems, all test data, inspection reports, and analyses that support verification, to ensure every aspect of the rocket is technically mature and meets the requirements for SLS's first f